Light of the World, a City on A Hill
…thinking out loud about living missionally in the city of Sydney so that the city will come to know Jesus…Fatherhood and Faith
I am a father twice over, about to make that third time lucky in June.
My eldest is almost 5 and is my budsky, my little man.
I am convinced that God invented fatherhood as a way of helping us dopey blokes understand, in some small way, how he relates to us as a father, indeed the Heavenly Father.
Consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matt 7:9-11 [ESV]
Since becoming a dad, this verse has made so much more sense to me. I LOVEto give gifts to my kids, especially my son. Sharing their joy at receiving a toy or gift is wonderful and enough to make my heart almost explode at times. I actually have to restrain myself from buying them more gifts than I do, lest I foster an expectation and lack of appreciation.
Being the gift giver also helps you understand that giving kids everything they want, when they want it does not produce thankfullness and character. Of course you then realise God does the same for us - not indulging our every want so that our character will be shaped and formed in Christlikeness.
Amen to that.
Can you handle the Truth?
I quite enjoy studying Biblical Doctrine. As I am not a bible college student, pastor or other “professional” this probably puts me in the category of eccentric weird guy.
I have particularly been meditating/reading/listening up on God’s sovereignty, particularly as it relates to salvation. This is a very weighty topic, but also very crucial IMHO.
Matt from Journey’s in between has inspired me to consider how a reformed framework/theology might shape our missiology, and I will post on this soon. In the meantime, however, I am wondering whether the teaching of doctrine has been somewhat neglected in our churches?
Mars Hill will start a 12-odd week series on Doctrinal basics this Sunday. This content will essentially replace their Gospel Class which they use for inducting people as members.
As evangelicals we are sometimes accused of being all about bible (in terms of knowledge anyway) and lacking in other areas like social justice. Now while this is in some ways true, I have become less convinced that we even have enough bible understanding.
No doubt experience will be different across the city. For me, I did the Moore College Introduction to the Bible correspondence course last year. Great course and I would recommend it. The thing is, I was embarrassed by the amount that I learnt form that course, particularly with respect to the Old Testament.
Perhaps I am isolated in my experience, but if not, should we be more intentional about teaching our people doctrine? Or do we think that the average punter can’t cope with it?
All Talk, No Action
Stephen Murray laments the fact that there is a lot of talk about church planting in his home country of South Africa, but not much actual church planting.
We do some here, but not a great deal.
Is this an area where we are also all talk, no action?
Are there other areas?
Playground Connection
I had a good Easter weekend. My main challenge was to keep refocusing my kids on Jesus and away from Chocolate and the Easter Bunny. Cursed Secularism!
Got along to services (I’ve stopped calling them “Church”) on Friday (Rouse Hill) and Sunday (Stanhope) both of which were encouraging times of remembering Jesus’ work on the Cross.
Numbers seemed a little down in my estimation. Some people were holidaying no doubt. I heard someone say, though, that a bunch of people were up at KEC (Easter Convention up the Mountains). Now churching up there is all good, but does this leave the gatherings back down the mountain somewhat anaemic on one of the days of the year where visitors are likely to be joining? Something to think about.
I took the kids to the park across the road yesterday for a play. Before long another dad came along with his two kids to do the same. I pushed past my natural tendency to keep quiet and introduced myself with a handshake. My new acquaintance and I chatted for 15 minutes, getting to know a bit about each other. He and his wife live around the corner and as we were parting company he told me to give him a call if ever I needed help with anything.
Wow. Just like that.
Connection is sometimes easier than we think.
Connect 09 is taking shape
I posted some time back some commentary/criticism levelled at the Sydney Anglican Diocese, which I felt had merit.
What particularly concerned me was the suggestion that the demographic of people typically in Anglican churches in Sydney was overwhelming either white or of Chinese heritage, middle-class, university educated and professional.
AB Jensen, who I have great respect for, has been doing a series of short video presentations in conjunction with the Connect 09program, which is the Syd Ang push for reconnecting with the Sydney community. In the most recent one (here) the Archbishop openly states that ” Anglican Churches have become very ‘Professional’ and that we need to break out of that ghetto”.
The more I hear from AB Jensen on what Connect 09 means, the more I like the direction the program is taking. What started out (in what was communicated at least) as some sort of bible distribution program, has started to take more of a missional shape. Ministers and Pastors are being encouraged to free up their diaries to focus on connecting with their communities. This is a good thing. And the recognition from the top that we have become way to demographically homogeneous is also a very positive message.
I am now looking forward to seeing Connect 09 come to life.
…who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Rom 1:18 [ESV]
This verse resonates with me. Especially today.
The day did not start particularly badly, but went downhill quickly.
On my usual 1 hour drive to work, I was nudged up the backside by the car behind me while stopped at a set of lights.
Top cut a long story short, despite being at fault (both in truth and under law) the other driver refused take responsibility and wanted us to just part company. Suppressing the truth in unrighteousness indeed.
So anyway, another verse came to mind:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Matt 5:38-42 [ESV]
I deliberated whether to let it go (the damage seems minor) or to hold this person accountable for their actions.
In the end I have put a claim through insurance who will in turn claim on their insurance.
It seems like the right thing to do. Particularly as their car was a $130K+ Porsche.
A Tale of Two Cities
I’ve been to bible study/growth group/home group/community group twice this week…once in Sydney and once in Melbourne.
I am a Sydney-sider so my regular group was on Tuesday night. I was in Melbourne for work on Wed night and was invited to visit a home group of some Melbournian friends of mine.
It was great. It is wonderful to be able to meet with God’s people in all sorts of different places.
Jesus truly brings a unity that transcends location.
Christology, Missiology, Ecclesiology
I have been steadily ploughing through my recent Amazon haul of books and am finding them all really helpful.
I will post some more complete thoughts later, but for now I wanted to mention a line of thinking that has come out from a number of authors, and has resonated with me.
The view is that we first and foremost must understand and define our Christology (who Jesus is and what is the Gospel) and this in turn drives and shapes our Missiology (why are we here, what are we here to do) and then against the backdrop of our cultural context we form our Ecclesiology (what we do and how we do it).
Michael Frost explicitly spells this out in his “Exiles” book.
I think sometimes my faith tribe (and others like it) can be a bit “Pauline”, i.e. skewed toward the NT Epistles, and in turn de-emphaise the Gospels, reducing them to “Jesus died, rose, ascended,believe in him and be saved”.
I am now trying to re-discover the Gospels and perhaps move towards more well rounded view of ‘the’ Gospel.
Israel & Greece 2009
The guys from Mars Hill Church are doing a tour of Israel and Greece in late 2009.
This would be awesome to join.
They are even planning on rockin’ out in Jerusalem, Mars Hill Style (which means Indie Rock).
What to do when Church Programs aren’t sucking your time
I posted a while ago here regarding what I saw as one of the downsides of an Attractional strategy, namely that the time taken in pursuing this approach meant less time for connecting with people and building relationships.
Well opinion was divided with some contending that even if some time was liberated, most people wouldn’t use it for connecting with people anyway, and in the meantime the churches program quality starts to suck.
This may well be true, but let me relate a story…
Some friends of mine are looking for a new church, and in the interim are not doing any “church ministry” i.e. no service involvement, no after hours meetings/sessions etc. My mate tells me that they now have so much extra time available which they are largely directing towards relationship building.
Now not everyone is as motivated as my friends (I love these guys, they are my model for building relationships), but surely we should think seriously about over-programming our people?
